Chocolate macaroons
Ingredients
220 g icing sugar
117 g almond meal
145 g egg whites
17 g cocoa powder
72 g caster sugar
DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
pinch of sea salt
132 mls cream
132 g dark chocolate
Instructions
Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Keep a third tray aside as
you are going to pop each lined baking tray into the third tray when
you bake the macarons.
Prepare a piping bag with a round tip and place inside a tall drinking
glass and roll the edges over the drinking glass so it's ready to fill with
your macaron mixture.
Place the almonds, icing sugar and cocoa in a food processor, and
pulse to combine. Do this around 10 times, or until all the ingredients
are mixed well together. Sift in a fine mesh sieve, twice.
Place the egg whites and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer
fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk for 2 minutes at a low speed
(KitchenAid speed four). Increase to a medium speed for 2 minutes
(KitchenAid six) followed by a high speed (KitchenAid eight) for 2
minutes. The whisked egg whites should form a clump in the middle
of the whisk. Remove the egg whites from the whisk and detach the
bowl from the mixer before adding the almonds, icing sugar and
cocoa.
Fold the dry ingredients into the whisked egg whites, pressing against
the side of the bowl. The goal here is to incorporate the dry
ingredients, but also to deflate the egg whites. This should take about
40 strokes. The mixture is ready to pipe when it flows in ribbons off
the spatula, like lava.
Fill the prepared piping bag with half the mixture, sealing the open end
with a twist.
Pipe four dots of the mixture in the corners of the tray, under the
baking paper, to secure the baking paper to the tray to prevent sliding.
To pipe the macarons, hold the piping tip at an angle to the baking
tray and pipe circles about 3cm in diameter.
Grab the sides of the baking tray and tap it on a hard surface
3 to 4 times to remove air bubbles. Refill the
piping bag and pipe and tap the second tray of macarons.
Rest the macarons for 30 minutes before baking, or until the
macarons are not sticky or tacky to touch. While the macarons are
resting preheat the oven to 150 celsius .
Place a piped tray inside the empty baking tray and bake in the middle
rack of the oven for 16 minutes, rotating the tray at the 8 minute mark.
Remove from oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes before
removing the baking paper from the tray and allowing the macarons
to cool for 30 minutes on a cool surface before placing onto a cooling
rack.
While the macarons are cooling make the ganache. Place the cream
in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Remove
from the heat and add the chocolate and leave to sit for a minute. Add
the sea salt and whisk to combine. Leave to cool at room temperature
until the ganache is a spreadable consistency and not too runny.
Once completely cooled fill with chocolate ganache and refrigerate,
covered, for 24 hours to allow the flavours to fully develop.
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